Our dear friend Esther needs our help.

For a little background, Esther was diagnosed with cancer in 2003, again in 2008 which metastasized in 2015. She still gets regular treatment for it.

But then, in 2020, she ALSO got diagnosed with Stiff Person’s Syndrome (SPS).

It is a very rare degenerative neurological disease which causes a lot of pain and stiffness throughout the body. It’s in the same class as MS and Parkinson’s.

SPS severely limits Esther’s mobility and affects every aspect of her daily life. Walking, doing things with her daughter Vanja or her husband Lyle - even cooking and cleaning are difficult, exhausting and painful. Needless to say, things like bicycling are out and any significant travel can be arduous if not impracticable. She always walks with a cane, and needs help with a wheelchair for activities of any duration. Now if you know Esther, you know how fiercely independent she is - and can imagine how much she absolutely hates what this disease has done to her.

Recently, however, Esther’s neurologist came across a company called Bioventus.

In short, they make devices that helps her walk. Through neural stimulation they increase her legs’ range of motion which smoothes her gait. This in turn improves her balance and aligns her legs in the right position for walking. This eliminates the pain of walking. Further, the A.I. learns her timing and movements and customizes itself to her. It also assists with stairs, recumbent stationary bike exercises and more, all controlled with an app.

So Esther got a consultation to try it out - and it WORKS (see the attached video). The long term goal of this treatment is ideally to re-train her brain’s neurons to walk normally again without these devices. In lieu of that, the devices can be worn indefinitely.

Here’s the problem - it’s not covered by insurance and is very expensive.

I’m hoping that together we can raise enough to help cover the cost of the units and help Esther and her family out in this financially trying time (Lyle’s industry has been shut down for 4 months already, without pay, due to writer and actor strikes).

Anything you can do would be very appreciated!